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00:00Uh, Bob in the city. Hi, Bob. What are you doing?
00:05I'm just a working loser.
00:07Oh, yeah. Welcome, welcome, Bob. You loser welcome.
00:12Yeah, I was going to say, it's always Pac Bell for me.
00:15Just up there with candlestick and keys are.
00:18Yep.
00:18Anyway, um, I think the giant model is the corporate model, basically,
00:23which is invest as little as you can.
00:25Well, not necessarily, but invest, but not as much as you could.
00:30But also, you know, make that money.
00:32And part of the problem is that it's not any one family that owns it.
00:36It's a conglomerate of investors.
00:38So I don't know.
00:39Every few years, it's a new head of the investment group.
00:42So that might have something to do with it.
00:45Um, and then there's something else I wanted to mention earlier, uh, this season,
00:51but I never got a chance to call in.
00:52Did you, do you think like when we got Devers that he kind of resembled, um,
00:58solar when we invested in solar after he had that great season with Atlanta and
01:03then he came here and didn't do anything.
01:05Yeah.
01:05And then earlier this year, Devers was kind of the same way.
01:09And I'm thinking to myself, man, we keep going after these sluggers and they
01:12just don't perform, but now he's starting to pick it up, obviously.
01:15So, uh, what'd you think about that?
01:17Well, Bob, first, I think you're not a loser.
01:19Thank you for calling.
01:20And second, thank you for Jorge Soler.
01:23Jorge Soler, who I haven't thought about.
01:24I haven't either.
01:25So today's the one year anniversary of the Giants acquiring Rafael Devers.
01:29So, um, I'm glad Rob brought that up.
01:33I don't know if Bob knew that, but that's something that's certainly worth our time.
01:37Today is the one year anniversary of Rafi Devers.
01:40I would never put Rafi Devers and Jorge Soler in the same sentence.
01:45I know that they can both hit the ball a long way.
01:48Um, Jorge Soler dreams of being Rafi Devers for one day as far as their baseball overall
01:55ability.
01:56But I know that San Francisco, we have not really been treated to the Rafi Devers that
02:02the rest of the major league baseball world knew.
02:04Here are the numbers.
02:06If you want them prior to June 15th, 2025, Rafi Devers as a Boston Red Sox in his career,
02:14a 279 hitter with an 859 OPS and a strikeout rate of 21.3.
02:23That was Rafi Devers' career prior to being a San Francisco Giant.
02:28And those are pretty great numbers.
02:30In one year as a San Francisco Giant, that batting average goes from 279 to 235.
02:38The OPS goes from 859 to 762.
02:42And that strikeout rate goes from 21.3 to 29.8.
02:48That's the tale of the tape.
02:51One full year, one full calendar year, but therefore one full season of Rafi Devers as a giant.
03:00Not disgusting, but not Rafi Devers.
03:03Right.
03:04Not as advertised.
03:05No, not at all.
03:06You acquired Rafi Devers and that's what, seven years or eight years worth of major league ball
03:11before he came here?
03:12That might be a little hot because he's not even 30 yet.
03:16But yeah, he's been playing for a long time.
03:19Long enough to where like you are what your baseball card says you are.
03:23Those numbers are not what we've gotten so far through a full year, 162 games.
03:29And I won't put the team's record squarely on Rafi Devers, but it has been more than coincidental.
03:36You're not wrong.
03:37It was actually 2017.
03:39He only played a little blip of that season, less than 60 games, less than a third of the season.
03:46Or a little bit more than a third, I guess.
03:48But anyway, about a third of the season in his rookie year, 2017.
03:52But yeah, that was, if you count that year, that was eight seasons basically with the Red Sox.
04:00That's a big body of work.
04:01Yeah, he came up when he was 20.
04:03Yep.
04:03Did you mean that to be a pun?
04:05A big body of work?
04:06Yeah.
04:07No, like, because he's a big guy?
04:08Yeah, that might have been his nickname.
04:10No.
04:10Big body of work.
04:11Yeah, I'm not going to.
04:11Like round mound of rebound.
04:13Right, yeah.
04:14Big body of work.
04:16Jorge Soler quietly 6'3", 235.
04:19As I look at his numbers.
04:20Oh, he's a humongous man.
04:22Yeah.
04:23Yeah.
04:23And he's an angel.
04:24He's still playing his trade.
04:27Yeah, yeah.
04:27How's he doing?
04:28I think he's on the IL right now.
04:30Okay.
04:31But, you know, he's doing what he always does, which is.
04:33Does he hit ball far?
04:33Either he homers it, or he gets out.
04:37Yeah.
04:37So, he's got nine home runs, and he's batting 220.
04:40Oh, that's what he did here.
04:41That's good to know.
04:42Pretty much, yeah.
04:42Okay.
04:43Lots of double plays?
04:44I would imagine.
04:45Only seven this year.
04:46Okay.
04:47Only seven in 58 games, so it's about one a week.
04:51It's kind of a lot.
04:52It's a lot.
04:53Yeah.
04:53No doubt.
04:53Anyway, nice to talk Jorge Soler for a day.
04:57Let's move back to Rafi Devers.
05:00No doubt.
05:00You know what the weird thing is about Devers?
05:02So, would I use the word disappointing?
05:06No doubt.
05:07No doubt so far.
05:10But I'm still with that stubborn group that says, yeah, I'd still do the trade.
05:18I think I would.
05:20Even knowing, because I don't think it's fair to look at Kyle Harrison now and be like,
05:25you know, we're just, we're not far enough into this entire experience,
05:30I think, number one, to just say, Devers is nowhere near as good as he was and Harrison
05:36turned into the star that you worry about.
05:40It's headed that way.
05:42I'm open to saying this is a bad deal for the Giants.
05:46I'm not completely there yet, but yeah, it's trending poorly, but I also, the other side
05:55to it was, even if it doesn't work out, I kind of understand the Giants' thought process
06:00at the time.
06:01I don't know anybody who wasn't in favor of it when it happened.
06:05How about that?
06:06I don't know any Giants fan who was like, that was stupid the second the Giants did it.
06:11We were thrilled.
06:13We were thrilled because we didn't believe in Kyle Harrison.
06:17I think we had started to sour on Kyle Harrison and what he had been in the small sample we've
06:22seen.
06:22And they needed a great bat.
06:24And it felt like five years of trying to get a great bat and no one will say yes.
06:30And then the realization that Willie Adamas is just kind of a good-ish bat.
06:34Not a great bat.
06:36Like, we wanted a great bat.
06:38So you got Rafi Devers, you're like, that's a great bat.
06:41He just hasn't been a great bat for the Giants.
06:43He's been a good-ish bat.
06:45Right.
06:46But, I mean, not good-ish enough to, like, account for what you gave up.
06:52Not yet, yeah.
06:52Well, and you look at Kyle Harrison, and I just punched up the numbers.
06:5513 starts this year.
06:57Here, he's 8-1 with a .247 ERA.
07:008-1, .247.
07:03I mean, I don't think he'll start the All-Star game.
07:05No, because his teammate will.
07:07Right.
07:08But he's, I mean, 8-1 with a .247.
07:10Like, and is that because Milwaukee understands how to coach up pitching?
07:14I think that's part of it.
07:15Yep.
07:16And so, for me, I look less at, oh, boy, you got fleeced in the deal.
07:20And I look more at, what are you doing, Giants, in terms of player development?
07:24Because I know Kyle Harrison, they've changed his arm angle, and he's now healthier, and he's pitching phenomenally.
07:31And, you know, Boston clearly didn't see anything in him because he went to Boston, and it's like, you're a
07:36AAA player.
07:36And then they dealt him for a song.
07:38But, like, I look at the Giants more in terms of the development, more so than, oh, you blew the
07:44trade.
07:44Like, what are you doing with your young people?
07:46Well, they did have some, I'm going to give them this grace.
07:49They did have some bad luck in this because of health.
07:52Like, Kyle was not really healthy for an extended period of time.
07:57But, yes, there's a development question in there.
07:59And they didn't trust it enough, and they didn't do enough.
08:03But I don't know that the results that you're seeing now from Kyle Harrison, in other words, I don't think
08:10the Giants could have gotten those results any earlier than now.
08:13Like, you may be seeing the exact same thing from Kyle now if he were still here.
08:20And they didn't fully give up on him, air quotes, because they got Rafael Devers for him, a legitimate, great
08:29hitter in his 20s.
08:31Right.
08:31He just hasn't been that.
08:33But that's what he, like, there was no reason to think that he wouldn't continue to be the 280 hitter
08:38with 30 homers and an OPS of 850 or higher.
08:43There was no reason to think he wouldn't be that here.
08:46He just hasn't been, though.
08:47Boston probably thought that he wouldn't be that hitter anymore.
08:50Otherwise, I don't know if they would have traded him.
08:52But remember, their trade was based on the anger and the disagreement based on his position on defense.
09:01And then his refusal to do what he has completely agreed to do with the Giants.
09:06You know, he wouldn't play first base.
09:08Right.
09:09He wouldn't do it.
09:10And so there were feelings there.
09:13And then you arrive at the Giants, and it's a completely different backdrop.
09:17You know, why would he do it here?
09:19Because that was the baseline of their relationship.
09:21That was not the baseline of the relationship for him in Boston.
09:24So I think that's why that and just the opportunity to get off of the money is what Boston was
09:31thinking.
09:32Right.
09:33And they also could have been thinking that, you know, his bat speed is down and he's starting to look
09:38less of the player that he was earlier in his career.
09:41And I don't know if they were able to see this in advance, but you look at his OPS this
09:47year at 706, which is like far and away the worst since he was 21 years old with Boston.
09:53And so that has nothing to do with me as far as the ballpark, like the swing and miss.
10:00And you mentioned it, a 29% strikeout rate up from 21 for his career.
10:05Those are the things that has me scratching my head.
10:08But this is a guy whose career OPS is 846, including this year.
10:14Yeah.
10:15Oh, yeah.
10:16Which means that it was well above 850 if you remove this year.
10:19And this year, as you just detailed, it's 706.
10:22It was 859 as a Red Sox, and it's been 762 as a Giant.
10:27And that is, you know, obviously last year, 90 games.
10:30And then this year, he's now played in 162 games with the Giants and an OPS of 762.
10:35And it was even over 800 in his time as a Giant last year.
10:40So what gives?
10:42Well, either he is in decline or his current numbers are suffering from a tragic April.
10:53Absolutely tragic April.
10:55He was awful.
10:56So there's always two perspectives.
10:58You can look at a 706 OPS and go, this is really bad.
11:03Or you could look at a 706 OPS and go, a month and a half ago, it was 560.
11:07Right.
11:09Which means since then, he's been Rafi Devers again.
11:13And so you've got to let it play the whole year and see if he can get that thing up
11:18to 800.
11:20I mean, I do think...
11:21846 is what, you know, you were hoping that he would be.
11:25Yeah, I mean, you would.
11:26But I think there is, moving from Fenway to Oracle Park and a new league and all that, there's some
11:31automatic, the number will go down a little bit.
11:33Not this much.
11:34It'll go down a little bit.
11:35But I'm fascinated by these things because if you do look at the Giants' season so far, we have continually
11:44moved the goalposts of who we're mad at.
11:47We totally have.
11:49We started out mad at Adamas.
11:51He was too happy.
11:52And then we got mad at Rafi because he was the worst hitter in baseball.
11:57And then he had a wonderful May.
12:00And then Susan Slusser's doing stories on Matt Chapman about getting death threats.
12:05Two weeks later, Ken Rosenthal just dropped an article that suggests as the Giants start to explore trades,
12:14Devers and Adamas are the two that they probably can't get rid of because they're under, quote unquote, underperforming.
12:22But Chapman, you might be able to find, if he'll waive that no trade clause, you might be able to
12:28find a new home for Matt Chapman.
12:30And I'm like, that's funny.
12:31So he's the one who's not underperforming.
12:34Two weeks ago, he was an article about death threats.
12:37But he's been awesome from the moment that article came out.
12:40He's been absolutely awesome.
12:42So why can't Rafi Devers be that two weeks from now?
12:45Oh, he sure can.
12:45And you look at his March and April, 537 OPS, May, 949, June, 594.
12:54Yep, we're back down again.
12:55Yeah, I mean, we're back down like way below what he normally is.
12:58So my question is, like, what gives?
13:01I don't know.
13:01What's the deal?
13:02I don't know.
13:03I don't know if anybody knows.
13:05You know, Dave Fleming was on our station last week, and he's like, I don't know.
13:10Don't know.
13:11But there's no question that the Giants, his first year as a Giant, has been disappointing.
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